The last time Owen Hargreaves played for Man United was in the 2008/2009 season during the 1-1 draw against Chelsea on the 21st September 2009. Despite not playing since then, Hargreaves believes that he could play for England this summer during the World Cup.

Hargreaves is due to play for United’s reserves tonight in Altrincham against Burnley’s reserves.

Hargreaves told the Daily Telegraph: "The World Cup is an incentive. Absolutely. But I need to see progress now, pretty quick, for the World Cup to become even a realistic option.”

"Such an outcome would help soothe the memories of a torturous period for the Canada-born player. "I could never have imagined in my darkest dreams something like this would happen to me.”

"My athletic ability has taken me everywhere I wanted to go, from Canada to Germany, playing for England, playing for Man United. To have that temporarily taken away is humbling."

Hargreaves joined Man United in Juy 2007, since then he has had operations in both of his knees due to tendonitis. His first season at United went untroubled but his second was hampered by injuries. Hargreaves underwent surgery on his right knee on 10 November 2008, he underwent a similar operation on his left knee in January 2009.

Having the operation on his left knee meant that he was out for the remainder of the 2008/2009 season. There was speculation earlier on this year that Hargreaves could be named in Sir Alex Ferguson’s Champions League squad, due to a minor setback he was omitted from the squad.

He was pencilled in to play for United’s reserves against Manchester City’s reserves last Thursday, he was left out due to it interfering with his training schedule. Hargreaves should play tonight.

I would love to see Hargreaves come back and play for the first team but I think that the World Cup this summer could be too soon.